Resonance
by Darkraven Haven
Summary: What happens when a woman keeps appearing outside of the Doctor's life, but affecting things in his time stream? Someone he has to save, but he doesn't know who she is! Rated M for character death. Reviews always welcome!
1. Chapter 1

The rolling stretcher burst through the double doors surrounded by four others. One holding up the medical fluids bag, another yelling out vitals, one pushing as the Doctor ran next to the stretcher holding the girl's hand as they moved into the emergency bay where he was gently moved back by the paramedics. He stopped running and took a deep breath before backing up as requested to the Nurse's station.

A nurse on duty turned to him and gave him a soft smile. "Is there any information you can give us about her?" the nurse asked softly.

The Doctor stopped, swiping his hand over his face and then thought for a moment.

"Umm, she was struck by a car. I think," he said hoping that helped. "There was a wheelchair on its side up the street," he said. "Not sure if it is hers," he said ticking off facts like a checklist on his fingers. "She said Ellie, when I asked her name, but she was pointing up the street so I don't know if that is her, or if it is what she was pointing at," he said. "She was shaking terribly when I stumbled upon her, arms and legs tucked up in an almost fetal position," he said ticking off another finger. "And she has a scar on her left upper arm, like an old surgery wound," he said honestly to the nurse who was scribbling notes as he spoke.

"I see, you don't know who she is then?" the nurse asked softly.

"No, afraid not," the Doctor replied. "I could find out? Perhaps do some research!" he said enthusiastically. He clapped his hands together as if to punctuate the idea.

"Anything that will help," she said softly. "We'll contact the police, but that will take them time. Any help you can give without getting in their way will be useful," she said honestly. "Now if you will excuse me," the nurse slipped past him and headed into the trauma area.

He looked through the crack in the curtain to the young face people were hurrying around and then turned to the exit before leaving the hospital. Clara was waiting for him outside.

"How is she?" she immediately asked. The Doctor looked to her before answering softly.

"She wasn't good when we found her, and they won't allow me in to see her without my psychic paper," he said honestly. "I got a good scan of her though, just plug her into the TARDIS then and see what pops up, shall we?" he said a bit more brightly as he took Clara's hand and walked into the dark of the night.

Outside of the TARDIS, Clara picked up the discarded wheelchair and stood it upright. Pulling on a long piece of cloth, she watched it come toward her until it came up to a clip revealing it as a leash.

"Doctor!" she called to him. He came out of the TARDIS and looked to Clara. "If this is hers, she's missing something dear." She said rising up the leash into his view.

"You might want to look at this," he said softly. She put the leash down and hurried into the TARDIS. Concern lacing over her features as she came around the control panel to look at the screen he had just brought up.

"Mercy Eliara Milan," she read the name aloud. "Quadroplegic, cause unknown since birth," she said looking over the information on the screen. "Born 1928? Wait, we're in my time," she said looking at him. "Died, 1996. How did she get here?"

"There is more," he said swiping across the screen. Two more images came up, both very healthy images of the same woman. One of her standing in the background of a cataclysm of broken buildings, fire and smoke. Her arms were raised as if praising a god, tendrils of white smoke like wisps between her and the building as people were visible escaping it.

"Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey," he said. "The journalist who took the photo said she was singing. The moment the song stopped, the building collapsed. Many said the journalist got it wrong, that she was crushed by the building and that stopped her song." The next photo had her standing in a grand library, holding the hand of a small girl walking to the front desk. Her finger rose as if asking the front desk clerk a question.

"London Royal Library," he said. "There is no information on this image."

"Wait, there's more," he said swiping his finger again. Another image appeared of the woman in the 1920's, the yellowish photo shows her on a stage singing in a jazz style club. Another swipe and she was seen in the dust of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

One more showed a painting of her in Royal dress wearing a small tiara, seated on a red velvet styled high back chair with a book in one hand and a globe of some kind in her other gloved hands.

"Doctor, is she another time traveler?" she said in awe of the photos.

"The scans I took say she is human," he said honestly. "All accounts, even the ones with her in the painting account her as being here on Earth, nowhere else that I know of," he said softly.

"Doesn't mean she isn't an Earth time traveler?" Clara asked.

"Earth doesn't have any, other than the Time Agency in the future," he said. "She doesn't appear on any of their registers."

"Wait, remember when I got that letter from Vastra?" she said softly. "I went to sleep, and met up with Vastra, Jenny, Strax and River before those nasty henchmen barged in," she said softly. "I was time travelling in my sleep wasn't I?"

"But your body didn't travel, if someone took a photo of you it would just be you asleep in your room," he said throwing his hands in the air. "Unless… unless….Unless!" He left the sentence unfinished as he began whirring around the console flipping switches, pushing buttons and pulling levers.

"What is it?" Clara said with a smile on her lips.

"Not sure yet, need to see this for myself," he said with that spark of adventure behind his eyes.

They moved to the door as the thud sounded that they had landed. Opening the door they were inside the Royal Library. They moved through the aisles of books until coming up on the front desk.

Looking behind her, Clara could see the camera that would capture the woman with the little girl walking up to the desk. She realized that he had brought them to the photo of the woman in the Library that had no information about the photo. He must have done the equivalent of a galactic Google on her photo. She got a cheeky smile. He had learned from the way she had detected the location of the people who were uploading people into the cloud.

The woman at the front desk was clicking away at the keys of what appeared to be an early computer, opening the back of books and typing again checking them back into the library. The Doctor pulled Clara to another area and pressed his fingers to his lips for her to be quiet. And sure as the day was long, the woman came out of the stacks holding the little girl's hand just as she was in the photo they'd seen earlier.

The woman smiled softly and walked up to the desk raising her finger not to the woman at the desk, but to the Doctor. A knowing smirk on her lips as the little girl coming with her came into full view of the Doctor.

"Can you tell me if there are any copies of _The Time Machine by H.G. Wells _in stock?" The woman had a voice that could charm an angel. The clerk immediately looked up. "I do apologize; we were not able to find any in the stacks."

The Doctor froze completely. His body becoming stiff as the little girl looked at him then to the woman behind the counter with wide eyes. Clara didn't say anything at first, just watching.

The librarian smiled and closed the book she had just finished checking in.

"Indeed we do," said handing it over the desk to the woman who handed it over to the young black girl.

"It's a bit of a grown up book, but if you can keep up with it, it is a wondrous read," she said to the girl who took it eagerly into her hands.

"And it will tell me about the Raggedy Man?" she asked with enthusiasm brimming in her wide eyes.

"It will tell you how he feels, how much he holds on his shoulders," she said honestly. "And how he often doesn't realize what is right in front of him until it is too late."

"But if he has a time machine, how can anything be too late?" the girl asked as if it were the easiest of questions, but with a hint of snideness in her voice as if the woman before her had said something with complete stupidity.

The blond woman with the soft bell voice knelt down in front of the little girl, whispering in her ear softly. The girl's eyes grew wide with wonder and a smile came over her young face. She pulled back and looked into her face. "You understand?" she said softly.

The little girl nodded before the woman let go of her hand and the little girl, complete with cornrows and a happy face ran back into the stacks. The woman walked toward the Doctor and his endearing companion. There was no mistaking now that this was indeed the same woman that the Doctor and Clara had brought to the hospital.

The librarian went back to typing before the woman walked past them as if they were not there, not even looking at them as she turned the corner toward the TARDIS.

The Doctor carefully turned to follow her taking Clara by the hand as they turned the row of books. The woman walked toward the end of them before turning to face them. In a flash of light that made Clara stand up straight and grab the Doctor's coat, the woman disappeared. Clara took in a staggering breath as the Doctor and Clara stood in awe of what they had witnessed before turning and looking at each other. Their eyes meeting as they silently questioned what had just happened.


	2. Chapter 2

In the TARDIS, the Doctor paced, frustrated. "There is no way that she is using a vortex manipulator," he said honestly. "How would she be? She cannot be!"

"Who said it was vortex manipulator?"Clara said softly. "Surely there are other ways to travel time," she said with a shrug. "That flash wasn't the same as the votex manipulator I used. It looked like she ripped a hole in the air and the lines grabbed her and pulled her in."

"She isn't in my time stream," he countered throwing his hands in the air for emphasis. "And she certainly isn't in the TARDIS!"

"Are there other methods of time travel then?" Clara asked raising an eyebrow.

"I mean I talked to Vastra and Jenny in my dream right? Could she be a dream?"

"Psychic projection?" the Doctor thrummed it over in his mind. "That does not explain why she is helping Melody Pond find a book about the Raggedy Man, or why she is showing up at major calamities I have no personal interest in ever visiting. They were horrible enough to read about, let alone visit," he said honestly. "And projections are rarely visible except to the people they are directly effecting, and even then the one affected has to be extremely sensitive!" he said. "She's been photographed. Sat long enough and lived long enough in one place to have a portrait painted, she is actually in these places."

"And psychic projections cannot be more than that because…?" Clara left the thought open.

"Because!" he said exasperated. "Because it would be too dangerous, your mind could get lost from your body and never return, you could not be human and have a mind that strong to have a solid psychic projection, you couldn't know where to be and when to be there, because a song isn't enough to hold up a building!" he said gesturing at the monitor of the woman singing at the falling building.

"And yet you have a Sonic Screwdriver that can open ancient harmonic locked tombs, and a Mary Galen can sing a God to sleep," Clara countered. "It looked like time reached out and took her back. Could she be a paradox or something?"

"No, not a paradox. Paradoxes resolved are bright lights, like, umm.. like when you have a bad headache and see lights behind your eyelids. And my screwdriver doesn't sing. It sounds fantastic! But that isn't a song!" he said still exasperated.

"Isn't it?" Clara asked.

"Isn't it indeed," he said his expression suddenly changing to one of deep thought once more. "I met a technology once that used song as a method of anesthesia," he said thoughtfully. Clara sat down on the stairs of the control room, letting him go about his thinking process as she opened her computer and began clipping away at the keys.

"I once met a race of people that only existed if there was sound around them, and another race that only existed if you weren't looking at them, but never one that could blink through time and space without use of some sort of device and stop buildings from falling with a song," he said tapping his lower lip. "Unless you count Rassilon, who supposedly didn't need a TARDIS to travel, but she isn't a Time Lord."

"Resonance," she said softly.

"What did you say?" he spun looking at her. She spun her computer screen to him for him to look at. He popped out his round glasses and began to read.

"Resonance, a vibration of large amplitude in a mechanical or electrical system caused by a relatively small periodic stimulus of the same or nearly the same period as the natural vibration period of the system. But that would take enormous calculation and years to figure out!" He said scoffing at the idea. He pondered that a moment before glee was written all over his features, spinning a circle before giving the computer back and kissing the top of Clara's head.

"Of Course!" he said with a bright smile on his lips. "She isn't time travelling on her own, she is resonating with whatever timestream is available! She is in sync with foreign timestreams!" Then his face fell. "No, no, no, that would be impossible. Even if she could sync her voice with a time stream, she couldn't ride in it. Even if she could synchronize her voice with a building, it would take centuries to figure out exactly where to focus it to keep a building from falling down."

"Wait, what?" Clara said confused.

"Ever hear of people hearing the radio in their heads after getting a tooth filled?" he asked, Clara rose listening to him, nodding. "She is in resonance with foreign timestreams, instead of in sync with a radio station! I mean, she would be, if that were possible. We are still missing something very important here."

"So, if it were possible, she can travel time?" Clara asked. "She's bouncing off of your radio signal?"

"Not just bouncing, she's riding in the TARDIS' wake, or any other time travelers," he said brightly as he began putting information into the TARDIS.

"The concentration it takes must be immense, and completely impossible." The Doctor said with authority. "There is something else here we are missing!"

He paused, eyes snapping up to the photo on the screen of her again, then flipping it forward. "Ohhhhhh!" he said as if it answered everything. Clara got up and ran around the console to look at what he was seeing. "Clara, look at this again," he said as he brought it up in a hologram. "This is the portrait normal sized on the canvas. This…" he said as he enlarged the photo to make the woman full sized, "is life sized."

Clara walked around the three dimensional image of the woman known as Mercy's portrait. She was seated in a high back royal looking chair.

"Anything jump out at you?" the Doctor asked conspiratorily.

"The book in her hands, I've seen that one before. Artie was reading it. Summer Falls by Amelia Pond was the title. But that didn't exist when this was painted! She's wearing a bowtie! Granted, it is sideways on her neck, but it is your black bowtie. The dog, all white terrier with blue eyes, we saw at the hospital. She called him Lanche. Funny name, Lanche. Like it is short for avalanche, or mispronounced Lance. The background…" she didn't finish the statement as she looked up at the TARDIS where the spinning and lighted wheels were above them.

"And her dress is familiar to me and to the TARDIS," he said softly. "The TARDIS was encapsulated in a female body once. And she was wearing that dress, that exact dress," he said softly remembering the TARDIS as a woman.

"Is that a screwdriver in her lap?" she asked pointing at it. "I've never seen anything quite like that one," she said softly. "Wait, yes I have," Clara said sitting down hard on the floor. "Where have I seen that before?" she said rubbing her temples.

"Gallifrey," he whispered. "It's the Presidential Staff of Parliament, obviously not to scale," he said softly. "It was in Rassilon's hands, with the stone missing, when The Master summoned Gallifrey here in the future, it isn't to scale in the painting. It's 2 meters long, it is much smaller in her lap of the painting," he said softly. He gathered his thoughts before speaking again. "Her resonance is giving her bits and pieces of knowledge," he said softly studying the portrait.

"Like a trail of breadcrumbs," she said softly. "But what Raven is she trying to lure in?"

~~~~~~~~

Inside the hospital room, the woman laid breathing softly in unconsciousness. Her wounds wrapped and treated her bruised face in varying states of healing turning yellow in color as her eyes moved underneath her eyelids. A man sat beside her bed, talking to her as she slept. Dressed in a black business suit, white crisp shirt, and black tie he kept an eye on the door as he spoke.

"That's it Ellie," he purred to her sleeping form. "Time to travel, time to find the Doctor," he purred to her. He leaned back pulling a syringe out of his pocket and injecting it into her I.V. line.

In moments her body twitched, and shook despite her remaining unconscious. The bruising healing, her body healing she seized and shook. Within moments she was left looking completely healed and relaxed back down onto the bed.

A low growl met the man as a white bull terrier came around the bed. The dog's body posture showing sheer unadulterated aggression toward the man before him as he slowly approached. The man seemed caught off guard by the appearance of the dog, backing up against the window until the dog leapt up onto the bed putting himself between the black suited man and the unconscious girl on the bed.

The man scooted around the bed and casually walked out of the room. Picking up his cell he called a phone number and spoke one line. "The canine returned," he spoke before closing the phone. The bull terrier just laid down near Ellie's feet on the bed and waited.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Doctor and Clara went back to the hospital. As he walked to the nurse's station, he flipped out the psychic paper.

"Here to see the Jane Doe brought in last night please," he said to the gentleman at the station. Clara followed behind him keeping an officious pose.

"You mean Miracle Doe? She's just being readied for release, room 342," the gentleman nurse replied.

"Thank you," he said moving quickly up the hallway with Clara in tow.

She rolled out of the room with her beloved dog walking beside her as the Doctor turned the corner of the hallway. Her eyes grew large as saucers seeing them come around the corner and she quickly turned the chair around to try and go the other way. As the Doctor caught up with her he just casually walked beside her as she rolled toward the exit.

"Might I ask where we are going Mercy?" he asked softly.

"Ellie. Not Mercy, not Mercy here. Ellie here. Don't touch me," Ellie said softly. "Touching would be very bad." Her musical voice was gone, it was dull and mundane compared to the voice heard in the library.

Her chair stopped as she had to let go of the straw to speak. "Eighteen hours left here, cannot shift back until the nanopods run their course. Now please, run away Doctor," she pleaded with him. The dog beside her whined at him, keeping his distance on the other side of the chair.

"Let me ask this Ellie, then I'll pop off if that is what you wish," he said to her coming to stand in her way. "When are you going to let me talk with you?"

Ellie stopped in her tracks again, rolling a little back as not to touch the Doctor. "Before the fall of the eleventh. After you stand beside and sing to the running river. After the smartest one has fallen to the cleverest, and the cleverest has saved all of time and space I will be next to the one that has forgotten but still remains. When my song aligns with the ones who hold their feelings in their hands, and when the whispers are no longer whispering to those who would seek your end," she said cryptically staring him in the eyes as she spoke.

"Now pop off Doctor, I have to elude you for seventeen hours and fifty seven more minutes," she said blinking and looking to her dog. "Let us go Lanche, before they find us again."

The Doctor stepped to the side, letting her and the dog pass untouched. Clara ran up to his side. "Doctor what are you doing?" she said looking at him pleadingly. "We found her, why are you letting her roll away like that?"

"Clara, my clever Clara, did you not hear what she said?" he said looking at her.

"Of course I did, but didn't we come back here to find her? We don't walk away, that is what you told me," she said under her breath.

"You are quite correct, we don't," he said looking into her large chocolate eyes. "But I am one to listen to prophesy when I hear it and there are bits of that you should recognize," he said raising an eyebrow. His head snapped up to the end of the hall where the man in the black suit was coming around the corner. "I have a feeling that is the man she is trying to avoid," he said softly into her ear. Clara's eyes slid to the side to see what he was talking about, then casually back to the Doctor's.

"Walk, casually," he said hooking her arm into his as they walked down the hallway.

"And so I said to him that the cure would be a pack of Jammy Dodgers!" he said a bit louder than necessary and started laughing. Clara quickly caught on and laughed with him. The man in the black suit paid them little attention as he moved toward Mercy.

"Jammy Dodgers?" she said with a giggle. "I am surprised you didn't offer him a soufflé," she said as they both laughed as they walked by the man in the suit. The man watched them before turning his interest back to the hall from which they had come. Once his back was turned, the Doctor spun around and scanned him with the Sonic. The man seized up like a tinman without oil and fell onto the floor. The doctors and nurses were all around him quickly and he turned with Clara once more, tossing the Sonic up and then pocketing it before taking her arm once more.

"A soufflé? Really dear, I think that may have been a bit too heavy on his stomach," he said as they walked out of the hospital front entrance. Quickly picking up their pace, he took her hand. "Run!" And they did.

Once they reached the area deemed safe to stop running around a few corners and into the alley where the TARDIS was parked he stopped. Clara nearly ran into his back with how fast he came to a stop.

"Okay, I do not know what that was all about, but a clue here would be nice," she said looking at him intently.

"She isn't really here," the Doctor said. "They seem to have given her something to make her stay here though," he said softly. "She said nanopods," he said thinking. "If they are transmitting her presence here, she cannot stop the transmission on her own, she is an echo," he said softly.

"I got that part, what was all that about her song aligning and the one that forgot, and the smartest destroyed by the cleverest," she said frustrated with his vagueness.

"Most of that is recent history for me. Some includes you, the cleverest is you. When you jumped into my time stream and thwarted the Great Intelligence… also known as the smartest. Singing at the running river had to do with me and River, the woman you met on Trenzalore. How she knew about that I don't know. It wasn't on Earth." He said scratching his head in thought.

"Neither is Trenzalore," she said cheekily to him looking up into his eyes. "The only ones left that should know about that are Vastra, Jenny and Strax," she said blinking looking into his eyes with soft sorrowful ones of her own. "She said before the fall of the eleventh," Clara said softly.

"We all fall eventually Clara," he said softly to her, smoothing down the side of her hair. "That could be anytime between now and then, it is fairly meaningless," he said softly. "Meaningless! That's it. Everything she said was meaningless," he said looking into Clara's eyes, holding the sides of her head.

"She wasn't telling me what I need to know, she was telling me what they already knew!" the Doctor exclaimed pressing his hand to his forehead with his amazing moment of clarity. Clara smiled up at him.

"So where to now?" Clara said with a smirk.

"Next to the one who forgot, at the exact moment that we were at Trenzalore," he said softly. "And when her song aligns with those born with their feelings in their hands," he said softly.

"Alrighty then? When would that be?" Clara said walking toward the TARDIS. The Doctor made quick to follow her. The Doctor looked sullen for a moment before following her. "They day the 10th fell," he said softly. "You'll see," he said softly.

She came up to the doors and for once, they opened without issue to Clara's hand. Clara stopped and looked at the Doctor. The Doctor's eyes opened widely and he smiled. "I think she is finally warming up to you," he said softly running his thumb over the side of the doorframe reverently.

"We'll see if she hides my bedroom again," she said with a smirk as she went inside to the console.

The Doctor smiled before going inside, the door closing behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

The snow was coming down. The stepped out of the TARDIS and Clara turned to notice it was invisible; the blue box just didn't seem to be there at all.

"I am already here, I cannot risk running into myself, or to the wrong TARDIS," he said honestly as she turned back to him.

"When are we?" she asked.

"January first, just after midnight, 2005," he said softly as he walked in the snow covered street. "I've just said happy new year to Rose Tyler," he said softly. He gestured at a man struggling through the street. "I have absorbed too much radiation, I'm about to regenerate and I'm fighting it."

Clara watched as the man struggled across the street and fell. Just then, a song was heard and Clara's eyes grew wide looking around she could see the Ood standing just so far away. Clara grabbed the Doctor's hand, her eyes watering in heartbreak over the actions taking place before her. She pulled his hand to her chest as if she could wish the pain away.

"We musn't interfere in this," the Doctor said softly. Clara looked at him as if she had been struck and then to the scene before her once more. Her heartbreak was written all over her face.

The Ood spoke, giving the younger Doctor the ability to move through the streets to the TARDIS once more. The Ood looked at the two of them, Clara and the elder Doctor as the song became louder and a voice was heard along with the rest but louder than the rest. The Doctor looked up listening, canting his head as if to discern direction of the song.

"And so the new story begins," the Ood said. "And a new song." As the TARDIS of the young Doctor vanished, so did the Ood. But now the louder voice was the lone voice.

The Doctor took Clara's hand and began to run through the streets, following the sound of the beautiful voice. Two turns down an alleyway then another street, a woman stood on the street near the Underground, a white bull terrier at her side as she sang. Her arms raised to the sky, hands cupped as she sang her beautifully woeful song. Passersby put money into a pot at her feet as she sang her beautifully haunting song.

Her eyes turned to the couple skidding to a stop across the street from her and her tune changed, arms slowly coming down as she sang again a tune that stopped the Doctor cold in his tracks. He stared at the beautiful woman singing as if slapped. Her song stopped and she held out her hands as the Doctor moved across the street to take them into his own. The terrier just happily wagged and danced around them as Clara approached.

"Hello Ellie," he whispered softly.

"Hello Doctor," her bell like voice came. "We haven't much time, they will find me soon," she said softly. "I shant like for them to find you here with me, my trip would be rather short then would it not?" Her eyes turned to Clara, a smile on her lips. "It is an honor to meet you Clara Oswald."

"Why are you here Ellie? Where did you come from?" he said softly.

"You will find out very soon," she promised. "And when you do, remember that my song goes on after I am not there to sing it."

"You sound as though they are going to kill you," Clara said as that determined look came over her face.

"Nothing quite so simple," she said sadly. "You will figure it out in time," she said softly. "But I look forward to the adventure that will be coming to me soon. I will dream of the adventures in time and space, I will dream of the Doctor and his story, and I will see the stars when it is all said and done. It is worth that to me." She turned her eyes back to the Doctor. "I will sing with the Ood, and I will sing for your loss at Trenzalore, I will sing as time takes Clara away and then as you get her back through sheer willpower alone. If I have learned anything dear Doctor, it is that nothing is as it seems. Even me, I am but a thought in a child's mind, a story told as a fantasy tale to teach the lessons to not wander too far from home, and a lullaby sung to children who have just witnessed the terrible and magnificent schism to soothe their nightmares," she said to him softly.

"But you never came when the nightmares came for me," he whispered softly.

"You have not slept," she said softly to him. "You lied to your friends telling them you needed less sleep than they," she said softly. "You don't need sleep at all."

"I never wanted to sleep," he muttered, flushed and somewhat embarrassed.

"As long as you exist, so shall I." She let his hand go and turned to leave. The Doctor stood perplexed and utterly confused by her words and went to go after her. She turned then to him once more. "No, no dear Doctor, it is my time to fly and yours to run. Now go," she said to him. Just as he went to step back, her body lit up showing her skeleton as did her dog's body.

A Dalek voice sounded from the alleyway. "Mercy Milan is acquired!"

The Doctor grabbed Clara's hand, backing up fast as the blue eye stalk light came into view.

"Run!"

And they did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The TARDIS whirred and whined as they contemplated what they had just seen.

"It is more than apparent that she is trying to get you to do something," Clara said softly. "But she doesn't directly come into contact with you except in passing or briefly before something is happening to her." Clara said recapping her own thoughts out loud. "Why?"

"I don't know!" the Doctor said clapping his hands together.

"Wait a minute, I have a thought," Clara said getting up and going over to the monitor screen. "Do me a favor, make this so I can draw on it," she said gesturing at him and the monitor. The Doctor gave her a confused look then flipped a couple switches clearing the screen for her. She touched it seeing a green dot on the screen. "Good. I know this is very low tech, two dimensional, strange for you monkey or ape science but I cannot explain it any other way," Clara said as the Doctor tried to stifle a chuckle.

"Alright, let's see what you are thinking," he said gesturing at the screen once more.

"I don't think she was hit by a car," she said simply. She drew a rough drawing of the TARDIS with waves in each direction coming away from it like water. "I think she hit us," she said poorly drawing in a stick figure water skiing on the waves with a tow rope around the light on the top of the TARDIS. "We stopped moving, probably unexpectedly on her part," she said drawing a line from the skier to the TARDIS. "She hit us, probably at a very high rate of speed as we landed, and then hit the pavement hard if she was in the vortex nearby us then suddenly … London city street."

"That's silly," the Doctor said shaking his head. "She would have appeared inside the TARDIS as it materialized if she was on the street when we appeared. The TARDIS has safety protocols to protect life forms," he said simply. "She wouldn't have landed if there was risk to some creature getting hurt by it."

"She crashed into us, not the other way 'round?"

"Crashed into the TARDIS?" the Doctor mulled this over in his mind. "Of course, the velocity of her travel if she was in the wake of the TARDIS would have thrown her chair several feet away! Oh that is good! I mean, bad, but smart!" he said brightly as he began to flip switches and levers on the TARDIS console once more.

"Where are we going?" Clara said canting her head.

"Milan, 1832," he said brightly.

"Ooookay, why?" Clara said biting her lip in her curiousity.

"Mercy Eliara… Milan," he said with dramatic pause clapping his hands together. "The painting was painted by an artist called Diago in Milan in 1832," he said with a wink. "Trace the steps before the crash, and then perhaps we can find the real Mercy Milan," he said waving his hands as he spoke with a final clap at the end before he threw the lever to put the TARDIS into motion. "Off you pop, change into something appropriate for Italy," he said gesturing toward the ramp.

Clara popped up and then canted her head. "What do they wear in Milan in 1832?" she said canting her head.

"Just go into the wardrobe room and something is bound to turn up, like Yorkshire," he said with a smirk. "Off you go!" Clara gave that bright smile and tore off up the ramp.

He patted the column where the tubes were moving inside and whispered. "Gentle girl, don't dress her up like a cupie doll," he said with a smirk as he monitored the console.

They stepped from the TARDIS into a cobblestoned street, lined with people bustling about. The homes of studded the street with a large church at the end of the street. Clara dressed impeccably with her dark hair tied up in proper Italian fashion. She took the Doctor's arm as they walked with her parasol at her side.

"So where are we off to?" she said softly.

"Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie," he said softly. "Church of the Saint Maria of Grace," he said simply.

"Church?" she said softly.

"Often in these times, orphans in Italy were taken in by the monasteries and convents," he explained. "I have a feeling that her name is Mercy de Milan, Mercy of Milan," he explained again. "If she is here, they will know more and I have a friend here I haven't seen in a very long while," he said softly as they walked.

He walked past the church to a smaller house to the side of it and knocked on the door. A young boy answered the door, his hair cut in typical style for the Monks of the era. His clothing simple as he looked up at the strangers at the door.

"Yes sir?" the boy asked softly.

"Is Father DiPietro here?" the Doctor asked softly.

"Yes sir, this way please," the boy stepped back gesturing inside to the smaller side room. They moved inside and went where the boy gestured. An old man lie in the bed, graying and his age showing him near the end of his time.

"Ah, Doctor, welcome," he coughed out. "Come come!" he gestured to a chair.

"How did you know it was me?" he said quirking an eyebrow.

"Easily enough, how many young men come to an old priest in his final moments with an angel on his arm?" Clara blushed at his words and sat as he gestured at the seats in the room near his bed. The Doctor scanned him over and sighed. "Plus I've been expecting you for the last ten years or so."

"It is not your last days, but I told you that pipe would be the end of you," the Doctor said with a sigh.

"I know my friend," he said softly. "But my dying is not why you are here."

"Then why am I here?" the Doctor said softly. The man raised a finger for the Doctor to wait.

"Michaelangelo! Bring me the black chest from the storage room!" he called out.

"Yes Father!" the boy called happily as he was heard moving about in another room.

"She is beautiful," the old priest said gesturing at Clara. "I told you to settle down and enjoy life," he chastised the Doctor. "I can tell you still haven't done that."

"I did, well, sort of," he said softly. "She passed on some years ago. Clara is the dearest of...associates."

The Priest just looked at him as if he could see right through him.

"Oh very well, very close friends." The Doctor huffed and Clara just smiled softly.

"With that young face? You have the worlds at your fingers, and God smiles upon you. Why do you look so very troubled?" he said softly.

"I've told you before Father, settling down isn't for me," he said softly.

"Ah, the wounds are still fresh," he said softly. "Perhaps not fresh as they are tender."

"We came for some information, actually," the Doctor said trying to change the subject. "We believe there is a woman living here in Milan that may be tied to the convent," he said looking to the old man once more. "A blonde haired woman, known as Mercy," he said looking to Clara and then back to the old man in the bed once more.

The boy scrambled into the room pulling a black chest in tugs due to its size and weight outmatching the smaller boy. Clara rose quickly as did the Doctor to assist the young boy.

"Thank you sir, my lady," the boy said blushing to his roots. "It is awkward to move."

"Thank you Michaelangelo, take your studies over to the chapel and finish your reading there. I would speak to the Doctor alone," the Priest said softly.

"Yes Father," he said looking at the chest once more a bit of disappointment in his eyes to not see what was within the mysterious chest before he left the room, then was heard leaving the small domicile.

"Doctor, open the chest. I think what you seek is inside," the old man said before he began coughing again. Clara hurried to bring over some water pulling out a handkerchief for him as well. He took both as the Doctor opened the lid of the chest and jumped back as if burnt.

Clara spun around to see him breathing hard and looking at the chest as if it were going to eat him and moved to his side peering inside the case.

"Is that… that's Gallifreyan writing," she said moving over and kneeling before the large chest. Her fingers touching the book reverently before lifting it up and out, setting it down to pick up the red dress within holding it up. "There is no way this fits her," Clara said noticing its much larger size. She looked over her shoulder at the Doctor. "The markings aren't quite the same as the book," she said her chin gesturing at the black and gold hemming around the edges.

The Doctor looked shocked and worried at the same time.

"No, they aren't," he said as he dared look into the chest again, this time pulling out the collar and red robes with the crest of Rassilon on the shoulder.  
"This wouldn't fit her either," he said his thumb running over the crest. "Women didn't wear these in the military on Gallifrey," he said softly. "Women wore one more fitted and with less flow to it." He carefully set it aside, and looked in again and pulled out a golden goblet. "Man or woman, fat or thin, young or old…" he quoted. "Mercy is from Karn or has been to Karn."

"Why is the chest so heavy then?" Clara said setting aside the dress before looking over the chest once more before smirking. "Cheeky!" she said as she thumped on the bottom of the chest with its hollow sound. The Doctor immediately moved in next to her as she gave him that bold, brave eyes look.

"Geronimo." She made the declaration giving the Doctor a cheeky sideways glance.

"Oi! That's my line!" he said with a laugh as he knocked along the bottom.

"Shave and a hair cut… two cents," he said in the knocking pattern to match as it popped open. He lifted the lid tentatively looking inside it careful as if something would lurch out and bite him. The lid lifted away, a gleam from the sun reflected off of what was inside. He carefully lifted it up until it came into focus. His breath caught in his throat and he swallowed hard. "Father, where can we find Mercy? How did you come to have this?"

"What is it?" Clara asked looking at the silvery, golden thing that was all angles and boxes within boxes like some kind of modern metal art.

"A map, a very old map," he said softly. "Before my people developed time and space coordinates, the circular writing you see in that book." He looked down and picked up the cape it was resting on, putting the map down very carefully to study it. His eyes turned back to the old man in the bed.

"Now I will tell you her story," he said softly. "My lady Clara, would you be so kind as to get an old man some tea? The kettle is on and sure to be hot by now on the fire," Clara smiled and rose rubbing the Doctor's cheek before walking away into the next room.

The old man made to sit up more in the bed and propped himself up a bit before the Doctor sat next to him.

"We found Mercy, or as she came to be known as Mercy, as a young lady in the woods outside of Venetia a few years ago. I was just a travelling priest back then, younger than I am now for sure. I was on a long road from Venice to Milan, walking to my next village. I could smell a fire, but I knew there were no homes for miles. As I looked I could see a single smoke plume, so I went to find it. What I found astounded me," he said softly. "A young woman of about twelve, standing in front of a pyre with two bodies upon it burning came into sight. She was alone, tears running down her cheeks, wrapped in that red dress there. She was singing, when her voice wasn't cracking from the pain of her loss. It was truly heart wrenching the song she sang, and I felt my heart breaking though I didn't understand the words she sang," he said softly. "The pyre was massive in size, and must have taken her some time to build alone. A slip of a girl shouldn't have been able to move the trees in that pyre, let alone two adult sized bodies atop it. The white dog at her side sniffed the air once, but didn't make a move toward me so I walked up beside her.

"I came to stand beside her, and she took my hand without even looking up. She continued her song and I bore witness for her pain as she sent these people onto the next life," he said. "I gave them last rites. She seemed thankful and gave me a soft smile as she continued to sing.

"As the pyre died down, and her song was nothing more than a hoarse whisper she collapsed. I carried her and this on a wagon back to Milan. When she woke she walked, never asking for water, never asking for anything. She seemed in a daze, one I have seen in many children who lost parents. I asked her name, and she looked at me curiously but never answered," he said softly.

"So we just walked in companionable silence. She mourning, and me, well more and more curious," he said honestly. The memories fresh in his old eyes he continued.

"I brought her to the convent, and she went with the Sisters there. It was the safest place for a beautiful child of her age. Surely she would be sold into marriage or worse if left to her own. In the convent she would have to work hard, but she would not be forced to a man's bed," he said honestly. "She grew up within a few years, and she rarely spoke. When she did, it commanded attention. Her voice sounded like the whispers of an angel. Her songs eased the pain of the sick and dying. She sang in tones, melodies at first but later in the language of our Lord. She went willingly into places known to be cursed with plague and death to ease others suffering. So we called her our Lady of Mercy. I await the day she comes to sing to me," he said softly.

The Doctor listened and canted his head. "So where is she now?" he said softly to him.

"Lady Sientabello left her a small cottage and a small plot of land with a small orchard just outside of town," he said softly. "She had no wish to become a sister of the convent, but she cannot own property so Lady Sientabello left it to the convent on condition that she be the only one from the Church allowed on the property, for all time," he said softly. "The Church keeps it in name alone."

Clara walked back in with a steaming cup of tea and placed it into the old man's hands.

"Thank you Lady Clara," he said with a soft smile.

"Where is this property?" he asked softly.

"About two days walk, on the road to Venice," he said softly. Taking a sip of the hot beverage he smiled to Clara at its taste, toasting her in a small salute. "Take these things Doctor, they do not belong here. She has asked me much about you. I never mentioned you to her, I don't know how she knows of you. I think she is expecting you to arrive sooner or later. Put these things in a safe place and go to her. She is so alone here. Is she one of your people? Can you take her home?"

The Doctor just answered him with silence.

"Of course you cannot tell me, still not one to confide are you?" the old man said with a chuckle. "I still remember your other young face, the one with the ridiculous green coat and long hair. Not that this body dresses any better," he said with a playful smirk.

Clara turned to the book once more and pulled it up onto her lap before looking at it. "May I?" she asked. The Doctor looked to her curiously.

"If you think you can read it, be my guest," he said arching a brow at her.

"No, I don't think I can read it. But whomever put this chest together used some really old hiding techniques. Extremely low tech ones, and the book may have a secret or two of its own," she said before sticking her tongue out at him playfully before looking the book over completely. She checked the binding, checked the cover itself and the metal sigils on the book.

"I thought Gallifreyan books were bottles of liquid?" she said arching a brow at him before she lifted the cover of the book and started flipping the first few pages.

"Doctor, look at this!" she exclaimed. The Doctor looked down to the page she had opened to. The pages were cut away to hide not one, but three fob watches.

The Doctor wrenched the book from Clara and ran his fingers over the watches, slowly. Each one given reverent caresses with his nimble fingers, he stared at them. He plucked each one out of its hiding place and put them in his pocket.

"This is why she had to cremate their bodies," the Doctor said distractedly. "They were truly dead."

"Go to her Doctor, her secrets are not mine to have. If you coming now frees her from this mundane life, then I can die knowing she is safe," he said softly. "I don't know what she is hiding from, but you can free her."


	4. Chapter 4

After a trip to the TARDIS, a change back into regular clothing, and a short jaunt the two day walk to the property the Father had told them about, they emerged from the doors of the TARDIS.

"The readings say we will find what we are looking for here," he said in a whisper. The Doctor and Clara walked up to the gates of the small cottage. Smoke billowed from the chimney. It had a small garden in the front and flowers growing all around the trellis and doors.

"It's beautiful," Clara said in a whisper. "A little slice of heaven, like a portrait." She said in awe as they walked through the gate.

"It is an illusion," he said looking around. "A perception filter, if you will," he said looking around the area. "But I cannot see beyond it yet."

They continued up the path toward the house. The Doctor froze, hearing something that was clearly lost on Clara. He grabbed her hand, weaving their fingers together as he listened to the sound. He pulled out the Sonic and scanned the area. Clara stopped as he grasped her hand, ready to run the moment he gave the slightest motion to do so.

"Please, no," Mercy's voice chimed as the Doctor started to scan with the Sonic. Her bell like voice chiming over the illusion as the door of the cottage appeared to open. "Enter and you will be able to see clearly."

The Doctor held onto her hand as they walked toward the door, the Doctor keeping the Sonic at the ready as he took the lead just ahead of Clara. She peeked around his arm to see as they walked into the cottage.

The moment they entered the door the cottage interior was quaint but far too perfect. The wood smooth, the floors polished, no dust anywhere. For a 19th century cottage, it was entirely too clean. He looked around in awe of the room.

"You're a Cedranite," he said in awe. "I've heard of them, but never seen one," he said moving into the room. Her eyes lowered and looked away. Clara looked at the Doctor then to the woman standing near a quaint table and chairs near a small fireplace. A warm glow coming from the fireplace. "The Keepers."

The woman seemed to gather her courage, taking in a deep breath and then shaking her head.

"He was," she said softly. "But he has been too long from the stars." She said honestly. "He is flesh and blood now, but his mind still travels. A true Cedranite can never be seen by those still in flesh bodies, unless they are in one." she said softly. "It was supposed to be temporary," she said softly, sadly as she turned away from them. "Just one life," she whispered. "All of them must spend one life in the flesh, to learn what they feel."

Clara looked to the Doctor with a quizzical look.

"A Cedranite is a being made entirely of energy. They were the inspiration to Rassilon that the Time Lords could ascend into beings of energy, free of the constraints of time and space. He was so short sighted though, even the Cedranites are bound by time and space," he said softly walking up to the young appearing lady before him. "But you dear, are far too humanoid to be a Cedranite," he said with a smirk. "Cedranites cannot take a flesh form that allows communication with the sentient species of the planet," he said softly looking around the room. "Where is he then?"

"Doctor, I don't understand," Clara said befuddled. "Where is who?"

"He is there," she gestured at the bed, or more beneath it. "Where he sleeps. He wakes when I need him," she said softly, her bell like voice coming around the room again.

"The Daleks have it wrong, she is along for the ride," he said softly to Clara. "They are damaging her, to get her to look for me. They have figured out that time doesn't affect her as it should, but not what she really is. They have a small bit of knowledge about me, from her most likely.  
"But she isn't the traveler; she's just along for the ride." He said as if lightning had struck, his hands flying to his hair. "Of course! You aren't human at all, but you are stuck in his vision of you made by the Sister of Karn and the Time Lord that brought the both of you here," he deduced.

Clara shook her head. "So she isn't real?" she said arching a brow.

"Oh no, she's real," he said with a smile on his lips. "She's as real as he is, she's his decoy," he said brightly. "They brought her here to protect him. They were not meant to stay. So where is the ship they used, the Time and Relative Dimension in Space?"

"Look around you, Doctor," Mercy said softly. "And I am not a decoy!" Mercy said softly, tears filling her eyes. "I am not just a pawn. I am real," she said as a tear slipped down her cheek. "Mother and Father told me to take care of him."

"Who are we talking about here?" Clara said confused. A low deep growl was her answer as the white bull terrier stepped out of the console under-panel coming around next to the young woman who knelt down to pet and scratch behind the dog's ears.

"Him," he said softly gesturing to the dog who just growled again taking stance between Mercy and the Doctor. "He is the Cedranite."

"Okay, so he is this creature of energy doing a stint in a flesh form to learn about life. So who is she?" Clara said softly.

"I have no name, none I can speak," she answered. "People call me Mercy. I let them," she said simply.

"Why are you staying and letting the Daleks puppet you?" he whispered, concern and confusion in his voice.

"Doctor, if the one person in the universe you loved more than anything in the world could only get home if somehow it attracted your attention, the king of attention deficit disorder," she said with a charitable smile, "you would do anything for them."

"But if he goes home, what happens to you?" Clara said with worry in her voice. Two more tears left the young blond woman's eyes as she looked into the dog's eyes once more, causing him to let out a whine. "I don't know. I live on? I go home? Where is home, Doctor?"

"A Time Lord and a Sister of Karn, neither one very forgiving of the other. Your father would be labeled a deserter of the War, and your Mother a deserter of the Flame of Eternal Boredom," he said shaking his head.

"Eternal Life," Clara and Mercy said in unison.

"That's the one!" the Doctor said with a heavy sigh. "So what are we to do with you?"

"I don't know," Mercy said softly. "But if he remains in this form he can never return to the stars, he can never go back to the untempered schism and soothe the children of Gallifrey, never attend the stars," she said softly rubbing his muzzle as she spoke. "He must, he must go and he knows this but he won't leave me until I am freed, and I must remain captive to find you so he can get home."

Clara took in a breath, her fingers covering her lips as she realized the paradox of their situation.

"The Daleks think she is the key to finding me," he said softly. "They are using the same type of things as the nanocloud on the Asylum to keep her transmitting clue after clue to try and trap me," he said backing up from Mercy.

"You are safe here Doctor, their technology cannot get through the shield around this place," she said softly. "I can only return here after the nanopods burn out of my system. Every time they put them back in, I am forced to travel again. So I go where I know you have been. You weren't supposed to stop in 2013 London, I thought you were moving onto 2014,"she said softly.

"Wait, if this is a TARDIS, why don't you take him home?" Clara said canting her head.

"Human, one heart," she said tapping her own chest. "I cannot pilot the ship. TARDIS?" she said looking at the Doctor.

"Yes yes, Time and Relative Dimension in Space, T.A.R.D.I.S.," he said looking at her with a wide grin. "So how is it you are here now and not being held by them?"

"They use stronger and stronger nanopods to keep me disabled. Send their puppets to keep injecting the pods into my system, but it buys me time to find you. The pods rebuild old and damaged tissue, renewing my body all the while crippling it to keep me compliant.  
"But this time here, they cannot touch me."

"What do you mean, you burn them out?" the Doctor said. "Once you are hollowed out by those pods, they turn you into a Dalek," he said scanning her over again. Reading the sonic again he canted his head. "Ooookay, that's just impossible," he said tapping the Sonic on his hand before scanning her again. "The Sonic says "Hello Doctor", and isn't giving me a reading!"

Despite her tears she turned her watery eyes to him. She sighed, closing her eyes and the Sonic began going on and off on its own. The Doctor dropped the Sonic and plugged his ears. "Okay! I get it now!" he yelled. Clara just looked around confused and dove for the Sonic. Picking it up as the Doctor tested unplugging his ears, realizing the offending sound was gone. She looked to Clara who had put herself between Mercy and the Doctor.

"I didn't harm him, just resonated with his Sonic. A bit louder I think than he would have liked," she said apologetically. "I do the same thing to the nanopods, but it takes time. They cycle every 24 hours, but they change frequency and I have to find the new frequency," she said softly. "They started using Cyberman technology, that upgrades itself every time I find the frequency but it conflicts with the Dalek nanopods program to disable me, so I wait until the program conflict creates a new frequency and use it to escape." Mercy explained as she sat down hard on one of the chairs, clearly looking exhausted.

Clara handed the Sonic back to the Doctor and looked to the dog and then to Mercy, then to the Doctor. The Doctor had taken up pacing; putting away the Sonic he took up rubbing his hands together in thought. Clara smiled knowing the wheels were turning in the Doctor's head.

The Doctor stopped dead.

"Is there any part of you out there right now that is being controlled by any of the other races?" he asked honestly.

"Not at this moment, no," she said softly, her eyes looking to him watery and in question of his statement.

"Don't go back to them, don't make yourself vulnerable again. I found you now, there is no need," he said softly as he knelt down beside her putting his hand on her shoulder.

"He needs to go home Doctor," she said as the tears started anew. "Please."

The Doctor sighed. "I will take him home," he said softly. "I need to run some tests on you before we take him though, to see what is going to happen to you." The young woman just nodded.

"It's almost over, soon you can go be free amongst the stars again," she whispered to the obviously beloved dog. "Soon Lanche, you will be free amongst the stars." Although the dog whined, his tail wagged a bit at the same time.

Clara stayed silent, just watching quietly. "What about this ship Doctor? We just cannot leave it here," she said softly.

"No, we cannot," he said honestly. "One emergency at a time." He came over bowing before Mercy and offering his hand to her. She curled her hand into his and stood up, Lanche falling in at her side as they walked out. "First we determine the effects on Mercy, then we determine what to do with the ship."

~~~~~~~~~

The Doctor stared at the screen on the console of the TARDIS, scanning Mercy occasionally, then back to the screen again. Clara sat near Mercy on the edge of her seat with anticipation.

"Well," the Doctor finally said after a hefty time of intense anticipation. "I can find nothing that his separation from you should cause you physical harm," the Doctor said softly. "I cannot say how much it will hurt emotionally," he started to say. One look from both Mercy and Clara had him restating that. "Alright, yes I can," he said softly. "I have a question, Mercy, if you don't mind."

"Of course, Doctor," she answered softly.

"You gave me information, things from my past," he said softly. "You could have just told me that you were coming here, and I would have followed. Why the cat and mouse?"

"The nanopods, they reported back to the Dalek," she said softly. "I couldn't outright tell you to be here. They would find the ship," she said softly. "So the puzzle seemed the best way to keep your attention," she admitted softly, her eyes casting downward. "Not cat and mouse as much as a scavenger or treasure hunt?" she said giving a hopeful glance to the Doctor.

Clara got up and moved toward the Doctor, her eyes full of suspicion as she put herself firmly between Mercy and the Doctor. "Doctor…"

His hands came to rest on Clara's shoulders. "I know Clara."

Mercy looked up the tears slipping down her cheeks. "Just promise me you will take him home," she said softly. Lanche got up and moved to Mercy, tail wagging.

"You don't want us to take him home, Mercy," the Doctor said cryptically.

"You wanted inside this control room," the Doctor said causing Lanche to turn to him and cant his head curiously.

"And now that you're here, what do you want?" Clara said her eyebrow raised as she crossed her arms, canting her hip in complete attitude that radiated 'I dare you'.

"I don't want anything, but you cannot stop him, he is fighting for control now so please get me out of here, take him home, leave me to my fate," she said as tears slipped now only from her right eye.

"Doctor…" Clara whispered. "I don't think hitting her will help this time."

"Indeed not," he said softly, but loud enough for Mercy to hear them.  
An evil smirk came over her face, Mercy slowly went to stand up finding herself stuck to the chair. "Oh dear, not this again! What is with you and tying people to chairs!?"

Clara shook her head. "Hello Mr. Clever," she whispered. "Had to know that the Daleks didn't know that they had imprinted you into the nanopods when Mercy kept burning out the ones that were strictly Dalek design," Clara said with a heavy sigh.

"Oh my, haven't you gotten smart," the woman in the chair said with a smirk. "And how did you determine that?"

"The Daleks are not looking for me," the Doctor said simply. "They were looking for Mercy to try and get her time resonance ability. They never figured out it wasn't Mercy doing it because their nanopods could only report what was happening to Mercy herself, not what was around her. They never realized Lanche was the real traveler, but we did."

Lanche backed away from Mercy, a low whine in his throat.

"So you laid a path of breadcrumbs the Doctor couldn't resist," Clara said with a sigh.

"Ok, so maybe your aren't quite as smart as I initially gave you credit for," the Cyber Planner within Mercy said viciously cutting her down. "I told you Doctor, and I will tell you again, you can be reconstructed from the hole in the information you left behind. Unless you kill off everyone you know, you are still so very, very vulnerable." The smirk on Mercy's face didn't sit well on it, like a possessed monster.

"That was all Mercy, Clara," he said softly. "Mercy's cry for help across time," he said softly. "Her body is fighting the Planner even now as we speak, and inside the TARDIS it cannot communicate with the Cybermen, or the Dalek," he whispered to her. "The Planner cannot even get out of her body right now. She has contained him inside herself," he said loud enough for the woman bound to the chair to hear. "The Planner hasn't been able to get messages out for a long time now."

"So we use the same thing you used, yeah?" she asked him in a small whisper.

"Oh sure you can, if you want to kill her," the woman bound in the chair said checking her fingernails boredly, smirking like a villain as she raised her eyes to the Doctor once more. "Unlike his brain, she has no regenerative capability and will surely die with such an intense shock to her brain. Not a Time Lord, remember?"

Clara sighed, looking to Lanche who had his tail between his legs, shaking and whining. Clara looked to the Doctor, a look of realization coming over her face as she knelt down next to the dog. She scratched over his head, behind his ears patting him gently. The Doctor realized what she was doing and went about doing the same. Providing comfort to the scared dog in pats and gentle scratching, and with soft words tried to comfort the dog.

Clara looked up and saw the tears trailing down Mercy's face from her right eye again. "You are scaring him," Clara said accusingly. Her words sounded vicious even in her own ears. Mercy shook her head, mouth open as if the words wouldn't come out.

The Doctor continued to pet the dog as Clara gave this woman a thorough tongue lashing.

"I thought you cared about him! How could you just let the Cyber Planner have you and expect us just to let him home and leave you to the Cybermen? Did you think he could possibly leave you in a state like this?" Clara said harshly.

Mercy's right eye continued to stream tears, then Lanche laid down and tried to cover his ears as the Doctor blocked his ears again. Sound not within human range obviously resounded through the area. Even the cloister bell tolled as the mechanical parts on Mercy's skin became visible, covering a major portion of her face and neck, down one arm and over the boot of her left foot.

"Quadroplegic indeed! You weren't a quadriplegic, you had that, that, that thing in your head!" Clara said angrily. "You were trying to keep him from worrying about you so you hid it from him!" Her eyes instantly softened. "Fight it Mercy. Fight him."

The sound emitted from Mercy became audible even to Clara, getting steadily louder. The TARDIS console began to smoke in some places, sputtering sparks into the air as some of the pieces began to fall away.

"No, you cannot have her! I will kill her first!" Mercy's throat screamed out. Lanche rose up and whined, the Doctor holding him back from going to Mercy.

"No, don't. You have to let her fight this," the Doctor yelled over the commotion. Clara went back to Lanche to help the Doctor hold the white bull terrier away from the woman now writhing in the chair.

The Doctor lunged for the console, pulling the lever with a loud thud. The TARDIS engines flared into life, dematerializing and obviously travelling. The Cyber Planner screamed out angrily again. The pieces falling away started moving around on the floor only to bump into a protective field flaring around Mercy's chair. The sparks continued until the cloister bell began tolling again, and all the lights went out. The emergency lighting came up a few moments later. Mercy was slumped in the chair unmoving, the bits of cybernetics, cybermites and other bits dancing around on the floor trying to find a way out of the field.

A bright, vibrant and pulsating light shone from between Clara and the Doctor, and he grabbed her pulling her away from the light. The light rose up and danced around the room gently swaying through an invisible breeze.

The TARDIS doors swung open revealing the darkness of space, stars twinkling in the distance. The light danced toward the doors, then around the center console.

The Doctor pulled his Sonic and reinforced the field around Mercy, the cybernetics shorting out as they slammed into it trying to escape falling dead to the floor with smoke and burned edges.

The moment the Doctor scanned them he shut off the field on the console and ran to Mercy's side. Releasing her from the chair he pulled her gently down to the floor, checking her vitals, listening for breathing. Clara ran to her other side taking her pulse before rising up and beginning compressions on her chest.  
"Come on Mercy, don't give up on us," Clara said continuing the fast compressions on her chest. "Come on!"

The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the fob watches, putting it in Mercy's hand and flipping it open. Nothing happened.

"C'mon Mercy, c'mon, fight this," he said holding his hands around the blond woman's elegant fingers keeping her hold on the watch.

The dancing energy in the room slipped around the console and came to rest over Mercy's still form. The Doctor looked up and then down to Mercy's lifeless form. "Clara, Clara stop," he said softly putting his hands over hers on Mercy's chest and gently lifting them away. Clara's doe eyes dripped tears down her face as she looked at the Doctor stricken as he gently pulled her away from Mercy, coming around her body to be pulled into his arms. She sniffed back her sobs and looked to Mercy's lifeless form.

The light bumped into the console, rising again above Mercy's form.

The image of the Doctor, goofy daft face, ears and leather appeared. "This is a voice interface," the voice said gruffly, as if this was a bother to even be here.  
"I provide soothing to the nightmares, I keep the stars, I dance in the vortex, and I have lost my voice." Clara looked at the Doctor then back to the interface.

"It's Lanche, he has no voice of his own, his language is not like ours," he explained softly. "That's not me, it's Lanche speaking." Clara looked back to the interface as the light came to settle directly over Mercy.

"Such joy and fluffiness you were," Clara said gesturing at the very put out interface image.

"She takes away my nightmares, soothes away my fears, battles races that even the Time Lords feared to save me," the interface continued to speak. "She is more of me than I am."

"If you do this, you will never be free again," the Doctor said holding Clara close. "You will be part of her for all eternity, a fixed point in space that can never be undone. You will not dance the vortex, soothe children's pain, soothe the nightmares of children seeing the schism."

"Children of time, children of Earth, children of the TARDIS, children of the Time Lords, Children of the Bad Wolf, Children of the Oncoming Storm, all the same, all the same dreams, seeing the same stars," the voice interface said. "She will not be alone, she will not be afraid, she will be free and in her freedom I shall chase away the nightmares and fears of all."

The Doctor just nodded and held Clara close who was watching all of this. The light paused and the voice interface looked at both of them. "She takes care of you, you take care of her, we are the same." The light became a solid beam, pushing into the fob watch in Mercy's lifeless hand. She arched up screaming Lanche's name as if shocked with a defibrillator taking in a deep inhale of breath as the glow surrounded her body in bright white and golden light.

"Oh boy, here we go!" the Doctor said half in glee, half in fear as he pulled Clara up on the stairs away from Mercy's body. Her body glowed brightly, her back arching as her arms flew out to her sides. Beams of white hot light flew away from her hands, feet, arms and head. Finally it faded leaving her motionless on the floor once more. The interface vanished and Clara was left in the Doctor's arms on the stairs staring in awe at the woman now breathing deeply as if asleep on the floor. Her features were serene, but had changed. She was no longer blond, red haired ringlets surrounded her pale and freckled face. She was taller than Mercy was. Clara stood up to take a better look but was pulled back by the Doctor.

And then, as if a wind had blown from the outside doors, she became nothing but particles and blew away out of the doors of the TARDIS. The doors firmly closed shut of their own accord once the glowing particles were fully gone out into the stars.

Clara looked to the Doctor, who looked back at her. Her face full of questions, and his full of wonder, glee and happiness.


	5. Epilogue

The Doctor picked up the only things that remained of the Cedranite and the woman who cared for him left. Reaching down he picked up a fob watch, and a dog collar with a name tag on it. He ran the collar through his fingers, flipping the name badge over in his fingers and reading the inscription on the tag.

"If you find this, I am lost. My name is Avalanche. Please return me to Mercy Milan, Earl's Court Station, London," he read aloud. Clara rose up and came up next to the Doctor, reading it a second time. "Earl's Court Station," he whispered thoughtfully. "One of the only places in modern London that still has a Police Call Box."

Clara looked up to him placing her hand over his on the collar. "Where did they go Doctor?"

"Home, I hope," he said honestly. "Mercy was atomized, and Lanche holds those atoms together. They are one being now. I don't know if that means that she is gone, dead, or what that means precisely. Where ever they are, they are an entirely new race."

She took the fob watch out of his hand, flipping it over in her hand. "It is beautifully crafted. Why a fob watch? What was in it that would have saved her from dying?"

"She was in it. The other two had her mother and father in it," he said softly. "They turned themselves into humans, or at least partially into humans. The Time Lord, and Sister of Karn ran away together in a TARDIS to give their child hope of a life. And she gave up her life to save the Cedranite that had adopted them," he said softly with a heavy sigh.

"I'm sorry Doctor," she said with such devotion and emotion in those large doe eyes. "She was the only hope you had of not being alone, wasn't she?"

"No, she isn't. I've got you, don't I now?" he said straightening his bow tie and stifling back a sniffle. Trying to put on a brave face, the Doctor kept her gaze for a moment before looking back at the console. Clara nodded and let his hand go.

He took a few moments, looking at the console, running his fingers over it. "I have repairs to make before we can land. I don't know what was damaged when she resonated with the cybernetics that was damaging the TARDIS." He said matter of factly.

"I'll let you get to it," she said softly, patting him on the back. "I need a shower and to get back into some normal clothes."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clara sat in the grass of a red field, picking at a flower nearby. Her fingers running through the Doctor's ruffled hair as he lay nearby, eyes closed. The light around them was ethereal, the twin suns in the sky bright but there was no mistaking they were on Gallifrey.

"I'm asleep aren't I?" the Doctor said keeping his eyes closed.

"Indeed," Clara said softly.

"If I am asleep, how are you here?" he questioned, still relaxed laying back not moving in any way. Just serenely relaxed he took in a deep breath.

"You find this relaxing," Clara answered.

"When did I fall asleep?" he asked. "Where did I fall asleep?"

"In your swing, fixing the TARDIS console," Clara answered. "Still trying to fix her up after all of these years."

"She relies on me to take care of her," the Doctor said softly. "Just like I rely on her."

"Of course," Clara said softly.

"Why have I fallen asleep?" he asked, his eyes cracking open to look up at Clara.

"So I can tell you a story," she said softly. _"There is a man, who lives up on a cloud. And all he does all day, every day, is stop children from having bad dreams. He's been on vacation, but he's back now. Isn't he Doctor?"_

"You aren't supposed to be able to do this," he said softly. "If I am in the TARDIS, you shouldn't be able to reach me."

"The TARDIS is looking out for you," Clara said softly. "She always has, just like me."

"You aren't Clara," he said softly under his breath. "Mercy, you aren't supposed to be able to do this."

"I never got to see Gallifrey," she said dodging the question. "It is beautiful, I can see why you miss it so much."

"You were born on your TARDIS," he said not as a question.

"True. Lanche came to us the moment I was born," she said honestly.

"Is he still alive, out there, somewhere?" he asked, a hint of hope in his eyes.

"Of course, we are the same," she said softly looking off in the distance.

"But if this is not a nightmare, why are you here Mercy?" he said confused as the Clara image ran her fingers through his bangs, pushing them away from his eyes.

"I now have seen Gallifrey," she said softly taking in a long look around. In the distance, the leaves of the nearby tree held two small boys climbing up in the branches playing. "Because you and I are the same, and tonight, you are needed to help your beloved Governess," she said. "And do me a favor, Doctor?" those brown doe eyes turned to the Time Lord laying in her lap.

"Yes? If it is within my power?" he said softly.

"Take care of my TARDIS," she said softly. "It will come in handy in the near future. You may need it after Trenzalore."

He awoke with a start, under the console in the swing of wires he used to work on the console. He jerked up so hard that he almost fell off of his make shift hammock. After a few not so graceful swings around on the cables, he was able to stand up and shake his head awake.

"After Trenzalore?!" he said scratching his head and shaking it a moment. "I won't need for anything after Trenzalore, I'll be gone. Won't I?" He said thinking, shaking his head as if the answers would fall down out of the underside of the console and hit him in the head.

He got up and straightened his braces as he wandered up the ramp to the bedrooms, he knocked on Clara's door but there was no answer. He opened the door to see her tossing and turning on the bed. Sweat beaded on her brow, her fingers grasping at the sheets as her face contorted in her dreadful dream that was haunting her this night.

He could hear her moans, and soft cries as she called out for him. She whimpered softly pounding her hand on the bed as if trying to break through something to get to him, still crying out for the Doctor.

He walked over to the side of her bed, and sat down on the edge of it. His fingers pushing her hair out of her face before he gently shook her by the shoulder gently.

"Clara, Clara wake up," he said softly. Her eyes flew open, her body bolting upright breathing hard as she cried out his name. She panted for breath a moment before her eyes seemed focused and she looked over to him.

"I'm right here, Clara," he said softly. She looked at her hands then back to him as it clicked she was dreaming, and she looked up to his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I was yelling wasn't I?" she whispered softly.

"No, you weren't," he said softly. "A nightmare?"

She nodded, shaking it off, clasping her hands in front of her looking down embarrassment tingeing her cheeks pink. He reached over and took her hands in his own.

"Tell me about it," he said softly.

"Its nothing," she said softly. "Just my mind playing games on me in my sleep."

"Clara, my Clara, don't do that," he said softly. "Tell me about it."

"I was on Trenzalore again, we were carrying your body to the TARDIS. Once you were inside, there was a horrible screech from the TARDIS driving everyone outside, and the door closed, sealed," she panted out. She gripped the duvet. "And it wouldn't let me back in."

"That was quite a nightmare," the Doctor said.

Her voice was very small. "Yes," she whispered. "I don't remember everything about it, it's vague the details. I remember there were Daleks, and I remember River being inside the TARDIS when the doors closed. But then I looked at it and it wasn't your TARDIS, it was a different one," she said shaking her head. "I could feel it wasn't your TARDIS."

"I could molly coddle you and tell you that its just your mind trying to fill in the blanks," he said softly. "But that doesn't stop the nightmares, does it?"

"I don't get them often, I really don't. I just think with everything today, plus seeing that younger one of you with the Ood struggling and in pain crawling alone across the street triggered something," she said looking to his face. "Really, its fading even as we speak."

"Clara, stop," he said pressing a finger over her lips to stop her defensive babbling. "You are still shaking, it's alright. Really. I'm not going to shun you because you have a nightmare about me dying," he said honestly. "Always brave, always strong Clara," he said shaking his head. He pulled on her hands and brought her into a hug.

"How did you know to be here?" she said into his shoulder. "Last I saw you, you were smiling in your sleep beneath the console."

"Someone said you needed me," he said simply, honestly. "So here I am."

Clara smiled into his shoulder and gave him a proper hug. "Thank you."

He just smiled and pulled back, helping her back down onto her pillows. "Sleep well Clara," he said softly with a smile on his face.

"You too," she said snuggling down into the blankets once more. He sat a few moments more, watching her fade back into the oblivion of sleep before getting up and leaving her room. Heading down the hallway he opened another door and walked into a dark room. The lights slowly came up revealing a small bedroom.

"Alright Mercy, you win," he said opening the closet and pulling out a set of jimjams.


End file.
